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ULE body problem

I was putting my ULE body onto my rail and trigger frame and as I was tightening up the screw the little nub just broke off. The little cylinder on the bottom of the body that the screw goes into that holds the trigger frame, rail, and ULE body together in the front. I did not over tighten it and it looks like it broke cleanly off almost smooth. Is there a way to fix this (JB weld) ? Any suggestions of what might have been the problem? The body was room temp, I never crank down the screws because im to afraid I might strip one out, and I take care of my stuff.

you might be able to JB weld it, but i would rather have it TiG'd welded, just to be sure that it stays attached. will probably cost you a little extra over the JB Weld, but actual welding will be stronger than any chemical bonding agent. if you choose to have it Tig'd back on, but can't find anyone who can tig, LMK. my good friend is a welder and in about 5 minutes it will be done. would need the body, bung and rail(just to make sure that the welding clears the relief of the rail), just to let you know.

laser weld would be the way to go its a lot smaller and doesn't spread the heat

its aluminium. heat will spread, but you don't need to lay into it if you know what you are doing. 2 quick stitches or a quick bead around the bung then a little sanding to take down the extra weld so it fits back into the rail. will be stronger than new.

Originally Posted by BigEvil

Unless you can find someone who is an expert at welding aluminum you are S.O.L.

i actually know an expert welder, Glenn, who has been certified Navy, underwater, Coast Guard, almost everything except Nuclear Reactors.

teichild: if anything, get pictures of it to stop any guessing here of what happened. get one of it together, apart and showing both fractured pieces. even if you didn't over tighten it and did everything correctly, aluminium can fracture. there is a grain to aluminium and it can break along those grains. whether its through pressurization(aircraft failures), or vibration(weak point in the casting of the slug/billet- aluminium all starts as a molten metal) or what ever.

I will get some pics up tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestions. And to answer some of the questions.. I am the original owner but it is a few years old. It was for a project I had but never ended up buying the rest of the parts so it sat in a box for years.

yup, its just a fracture line. time, little moisture(expanding the metal out) and you doing absolutely nothing wrong, caused this. it sucks but it happens, but it can be fixed as good as new.

1) contact Zupes. i doubt that it would be warrantied, but i don't know.
2) if that fails, contact local welding shops about some Tig welding(you must ask/tell them that they are will be working on aluminium. its not a shared skill with other welding. its a totally different process than steel). see what they say or what they can do.
3) if they can not help you, then contact me and i'll have my friend weld it. he might not be any cheaper(it won't because of the added shipping), but i do have one thing over your local welder, i know paintball. i know this body and know how it should end up like.
4) if you do send it to me, send the broken bung, body(those 2 should be obvious) and your rail. i would need you rail, just because i would need to know how much of the weld needs to be ground down, so the body fits into the rail properly. don't worry, grinding down the weld is a normal process and if done correctly, it won't hurt the strength.

when welding, you need a ground point. that is generally with bare metal. so, with aluminium one way to do this, other than sanding off anno to get to bare metal is, if there is a screw hole, thread in an aluminium screw to ground the body. the screw not only acts as an alignment tool, but also the ground point. a quick tack to keep it in place, then run your stitch. this is were those that know how to weld are separated from those that are masters.

Oh No! that stuff is very hard to work with. You need almost a laboratory clean environment and lots of luck . Go with a damn good welder and look away. I 've been there done that, trust the man with the stick and clean it up afterwards. Nobody knows a guy so send it to him. Or just look for a new body, sometimes fixing cost more then replacing. Lord knows I've spent way more to fix something then I could have just replaced it. But that's how rescue projects start.

Make sure that your frame screw is not bottoming out in the body hole. You can exert enough force with the screw in the threads to rip the pim off. Use a washer if your screw is bottoming out. Dave would probably warrantee that, as I have never seen that in all my years.